


Top of the List

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: There are a lot of things Adela likes about spring





	Top of the List

**Author's Note:**

> For prompt fill #85: Spring. Adi gets this one, along with her best buds, because it’s been too long since I wrote them together.

There were many things Adela loved about spring. Better weather, birds singing, baby animals. It was also the time of year a lot of academics emerged from fours months ensconced in their toasty warm studies with new papers and treatises on a plethora of topics(not that she’d had time to track any of them down this year). But more than anything, she loved the flowers.

And this year--like last--she was getting to see a whole array of new ones. The Deadfire Archipelago had an even greater variety than the Dyrwood, given the wildly different climates on the various islands. There were some on Tikawara almost as big as Adela herself, and then ones not much bigger than a fingernail. All of them were fascinating, and beautiful in their own way, and after a little trial and error, Adela and Xoti had mostly figured out how to determine which ones were safe to touch.

“Adi, look at these!” Xoti crowed as she returned from scouting with a handful of pale pink blossoms. They looked like peonies, except fewer petals. “Ain’t they pretty?”

“Very,” she agreed with an enthusiastic grin. “Where’d you find them?”

“Over that way.” Xoti waved her free hand toward a hill that sat to the west of their campsite. “There’s a whole... I guess you’d call it a glen, with all kinds’a flowers I ain’t seen before. It’s _beautiful_ , and it looked pretty safe.”

“Maybe we can go back after dinner,” Adela said, at the same moment Aloth asked, “How certain are you it’s safe?”

“Adi, that’s what I was thinkin’--stew smells really good, by the way--an’ Aloth, whaddya mean?” Xoti planted her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow at the wizard.

“This is an uninhabited, _uncharted_ island,” Aloth said, fiddling with the pages of his grimoire. “I’m simply concerned that a single, cursory scouting trip is insufficient to deem the entire place _safe._ ”

“He’s got a point.” Adela gave the stew one last stirring to make sure none was sticking to the bottom and swung it away from the firepit. “I want to go enjoy flowers as much as you do, Xo, but we haven’t seen nearly enough of this island to be sure it’s completely safe.”

“We’re gonna be together, ain’t we?” Xoti countered. “We ain’t exactly helpless.” She nudged the hilt of her sickle, setting it rocking against her leg. “Hel, if you’re really worried, I bet Rekke would come with us.”

The redhead started at his name, looking up from the patterns he’d been tracing in the dirt. “I... go with you?”

“Only if you want to,” Adela assured him hastily. “We’re gonna explore after dinner, go see a place Xoti found with lots of plants and flowers.”

“ _Ta_ , I will come,” Rekke nodded, brushing his hair back from his face.

“Great! See, we’ll be _fine_ ,” Xoti grinned at Aloth. “You an’ Pallegina can hold down the camp, right? ‘Less you’d rather come with us, too.”

“Oh, no.” Aloth shook his head, smile tugging at his lips as he darted a look toward Adela. “I know what _she’s_ like when you give her access to large quantities of flowers.”

And to Xoti’s immense frustration, neither he nor Adela would elaborate the entire time they were eating dinner. Pallegina pled ignorance when the priest tried to ask her. “I wasn’t present for this... incident, whatever it may be.”

Adela finally took pity on her as the two of them, plus Rekke, headed for the glen Xoti had found. “Flower crowns.”

“Huh?” Xoti looked at her, confused by the lack of context.

“On the way to Defiance Bay the first time, back in the Dyrwood. It was spring, and I was excited there were flowers, so I made flower crowns. First one for me, then Kana, then just decided to do one for _everyone_.” She shrugged.  “They’re fun to make, and we’d set camp early, so I had a lot of time to kill. To Aloth’s credit, he _did_ wear the one I made him for a good hour before it ‘ _mysteriously’_ disappeared. Kana and Sagani, on the other hand, loved theirs so much they were still wearing them when we reached the city the next day, even though they were starting to fall apart.”

“Yeah, I gotta say, Aloth don’t really strike me as the flower crown type,” Xoti commented, leading the way through a patch of trees.

“He’s not,” Adela confirmed. “But we didn’t know each other well yet, and he didn’t want to rock the boat, and I was too caught up having fun to notice he wasn’t terribly thrilled. If I made him one _now_ he’d prob’ly wear it to humor me ‘cause we’re friends. But I won’t do that to him.” She grinned. “Not when I have you two.”

Xoti laughed. “We’ll definitely be more enthusiastic about ‘em, won’t we?” She elbowed Rekke playfully in the ribs.

“Hm? Oh, _ta_ ,” he nodded, attention seeming more drawn by their surroundings than the conversation. All the same, he offered a smile. “I would be happy to wear a crown of flowers for you.”

“Are you alright?” Adela checked. “You seem distracted.”

“Oh, y-yes.” Seeing she wasn’t convinced by the stuttered reassurance, Rekke raked one hand through his hair and tried again. “These trees, there are ones like them near Lipasalis, _ta_? I am just a little homesick.”

She glanced at the trees, short, scrubby things with gnarled and twisted branches and a peeling layer of bark. “That’s what your trees look like?”

“Some of them. Others are tall, and big around. But the ones closest to the city look like this.” He reached out and trailed his fingers along the bark as they passed. It flaked like parchment under his touch.

“Well, c’mon, we can swap stories and distract ya,” Xoti said with a wink, tugging on his arm. “We’re almost there.” And she promptly launched in to what Adela figured was a greatly embellished version of the Dawnstars’ first few days in the Deadfire. Embellished or no, the story had both her and Rekke laughing no more than three minutes in, and filled the rest of their walk to the glen Xoti had found.

Adela could see why her friend had been so excited; it looked like something out of a fairy tale. Edged in scraggly(if slightly taller) trees, the small glen held at _least_ five different kinds of flowers that she could see. One even sprouted from a hanging vine, trailing from tree to tree in a brilliant yellow boundary line.

“Wow,” was all she could say at first, followed a few moments later by, “I sort of want to live here now.”

Xoti giggled. “Knew you’d like it. D’you recognize any of these flowers? “Cause I sure don’t.”

“A couple look almost familiar,” Adela said, locating the patch of pink blooms Xoti had brought back to camp. “Maybe they’re local offshoots?”

Xoti almost reverently trailed her fingers across small orange blossoms, similar to marigolds. The stems were different, and the middle tiers of petals darkened to red, but otherwise they matched the cheerful yellow flowers Adela knew from Ixamitl. “Think they’re safe to pick?”

“Probably,” Adela said slowly. The ones she almost-recognized all looked like harmless plants from either back home or in the Dyrwood. “Only one way to know for sure, though, which you’ve already tested.”

Xoti rolled her eyes at the teasing. “So we know the pink ones are safe. Should we find out about a couple more?”

Adela grinned. “I’m always ready to take a few risks when flowers are involved.” She studied the orange ones Xoti had touched. “Bet these would make a really pretty flower crown.” And there were certainly enough of them to pick a couple dozen without feeling bad. “This color would look good against your hair, Xo.”

Xoti smiled and pushed back her hood. “Aw, thanks, Adi. If you’re gonna do that, I’m makin’ you one, too.”

Adela giggled. “Deal. We should prob’ly find something to talk about that Rekke will like, too.” She flashed him a smile. “So you don’t get bored listening to us.”

He chuckled, idly gathering his hair to tie it back from his face. “I know this was a... risk, _ta_? I do not mind, it helps me practice my Aedyran.”

“Still...” she curled the tail of her braid around her thumb. “Being left out’s not a fun feeling.”

Rekke nodded. “True.”

“So, Adi,” Xoti began as she walked further into the flowery glen. “I guess it’s safe to assume your favorite part of spring’s the flowers?”

“You got me,” Adela conceded, kneeling to pick the orange marigolds. The sturdier stems must help with drawing more water in the dry months, she guessed. And maybe it got windy here? “Spring’s my favorite, and there’s a lot I like, but the flowers are definitely top of the list. How ‘bout you?”

For all their sturdy stalks, the flowers came up easily, and she’d picked half a dozen before Xoti answered. “Aw, that’s easy,” she laughed. “I grew up on a farm, Adi. Baby animals galore. Whaddya think my favorite part is?”

“Hmm, I’m going to guess planting vegetables?” Adela deadpanned, then laughed when Xoti chucked a pebble at her. “Oh, so it _is_ the baby animals. See, I figured that was too obvious.”

“I’m not a master of skulduggery and secrecy like some people,” Xoti retorted sweetly. “How ‘bout you, Rekke? What do you like best about spring?”

He mulled it over for a minute while Xoti and Adela finished collecting flowers and got themselves comfortably seated to start braiding. “Here I would say the weather. There is rain, but not so much. And it is.... softer? than in winter, when it comes.”

“Mm, that’s a good one. Summer can be bad, too, to hear Tuliak tell it,” Adela commented, biting her lip in concentration as she wove the flower stems together.

Rekke wrinkled his nose and muttered something in Seki she didn’t catch. “Back home, there is a nut, very sweet, that can only be picked the first couple weeks of spring. It tastes very good, by itself or...” he frowned and rubbed his thumbs across his fingers as the word escaped him. “...broken small?”

“Crushed?” Adela supplied, and he nodded.

“ _Ta_. Crushed on food. We cannot buy later in the year, because of the cost, so we only have it in spring in my house.”

“Do ya ever put it on chocolate things?” Xoti asked, looking at Rekke rather than the crown she was braiding.

“Oh yes. It is _very_ good with chocolate,” he grinned.

“What isn’t?” Adela laughed.

Their conversation shifted to food from there, talking about favorite dishes, bemoaning less enjoyed ones. Xoti and Adela finished the crowns they were making each other. The orange and red blossoms looked as pretty against Xoti’s dark hair as Adela had predicted, and the crinkly blue cornflowers she’d chosen were equally complementary to Adela’s blonde waves. Once the two of them had gleefully exchanged their own circlet, they set to work together making Rekke one of small, deep purple flowers. They reminded Adela of yarrow, aside from being  the wrong color.

Rekke was very appreciative, smiling wide as he ducked his head so Xoti could put the crown on him. The three of them sat and talked for another hour or so, enjoying the scenery(and the break from being shipbound), before heading back to camp.

Aloth and Pallegina were both sitting out near the campfire as they approached. The wizard was engrossed in his book, but Pallegina looked up from sharpening her estoc at the sound of their footsteps. She raised an eyebrow at their new accessories, golden eyes flickering with amusement.

“I take it you enjoyed yourselves,” she commented.

“Immensely,” Adela said with a cheerful smile.

Aloth looked up at the sound of her voice and a wry grin pulled at his lips. “I knew it.”

“You do have experience with my foibles and passions,” she laughed as she plunked down next to him and peeked at his book. It was something about Deadfire wildlife, the more mundane varieties. “I was tempted to make you one, but refrained.”

“How shall I ever survive?” he deadpanned, still smirking slightly.

“I can share mine if you like,” Adela offered with a mock innocent smile.

“No, no, I’ll manage.” Aloth reached over and straightened the circlet as it slipped toward her eye. “It’s even cornflowers.”

“Hey, Xoti made it, that actually isn’t my choice.”

“I picked that ‘cause I know you like ‘em,” Xoti chipped in.

“So it was sort of my choice, then,” Adela corrected herself with a laugh. “They _are_ my favorite.” _For several reasons._ She tugged one of the extras she’d picked from her pocket and tucked it in the tie holding back Aloth’s hair.

He shot her a flat look but left it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said sweetly. She reached for her pack and dug for a book of her own. The light was hanging around longer than before--another great thing about spring--and she wanted to take advantage of that.

The five of them settled in for the evening all absorbed in their own doings, but every so often Adela and Xoti would catch each other adjusting their flower crowns and they’d share a grin.

Yes, there were many things to like about spring.


End file.
